Spagetti and meatballs

To celebrate the end of term we decided to have a wacky hair day and shared lunch. It all came together in a bit of a rush after Adrianne reminded us, we decided on spagetti and meatballs so on Tuesday Jo popped down to the shops before work and picked up the ingredients for Adriannes recipe. Adrianne reckoned 4Kilos of mince!

So that morning everyone arrived with wacky hair.

Then we started to cook. Jo got out her grinder and made breadcrumbs.

Then David showed the children how my liberally sprinkling water everywhere you could mince onions without crying.

Next came chopping the herbs from Jo's garden.

beating the eggs from her brother's silkies on the farm.

Then making the meatballs. Lots of math's here as we all learnt to make them the same size, not to big or to small. It took a bit of practise to judge the size right, but soon the children where matching and judging the size of their own meatballs. "mine's to big, I'd better pinch some off."

Into the oven they went were we kept an eye on them under strict supervision.

While they cooked Jo got on with the sauce. Opening cans is a great way to strengthen young hands for holding pencils.

Finally we could eat it, Yum!



Anymore?

Yeap about 2 kilos worth of mince made into cooked meat balls.

For thirty children and four adults I would recommend 2 kilos of mince, 1kg (2 packets) of spagetti, and 8 tins of tomatoes with extra bits. Plus 4 medium onions, herbs, spices, 8 eggs and four cups of bread crumbs.

Thanks to Adrianne and especially Monica for watching everyone else with Claire while we cooked and cleaned with the children.

David

Art Auction Night

19.9.8
With the children's art split up into 60 lots of 3-4 paintings, and further adult painitngs arriving from Sarah Simmons and Jenny Price we were ready to go. Brian Bee kindly donated his time to act as auctioneer and the great auction began. Adrianne had a long list of bids from parents who couldn't make it, as did a few of the parents who came, and boy did she work those bids hard!

So we started, bidding was hot, the first lot went quietly at $16, the second jumped to $39 and soon prices were soaring with around nine lots breaking the $50 mark for childrens work, including one single lot, a group canvas that went for $54. In the end the top lot in the children's art in the end went for $66 featuring a stunning collection of canvas's and it wasn't just parents who were bidding.

In the adult section, our mysterious JN painter's two water colours went for a bargin $62 along with a tip from Caroline as to who might have painted it. Our teacher's collected works fetched a respectable $68 just pipping the top child artists, and the Laura Wilson framed Pukeko watercolour valued at $200 got top price of the night at a bargin $120, much to the delight of the buyer.
All up around $1800 was raised, though money is still coming in.

A big thankyou to all the people who came, and a special thankyou to our auctioner Brain Bee, our adult arrtists, Jenny Price, Laura Wilson and Sarah Simmons, the San Hill winery for the donation of wine, our banking officer Theresa, the teaching team and of course all our wonderful child artists.
And thankyou to all who said I could put their faces on the blog.

Cosmic encounter

We got invited to see our old friends at Waipukurau Primary put on the dress rehearsal for their musical show.



It was great to see lots of familiar faces.

After the show we headed back to Kindergarten for a late morning tea. Thankyou to all the parents who helped out with the trip.

If You'd love to see the show, and we'd recommend it, tickets are $5 from the school office. But be quick!

Circus tricks

Lots of our children went to see the circus when it came to town, amongst the tricks they brought back were hanging from the trapieze by your feet, limbo under a pole, hula hooping and tumbling through a hoop. One boy seeing others couldn't tumble, called them back and explained to each new learner in turn how to do it, see watch me.

There confidence rapidly grew till some were running in and diving through into a tumble or doing as many as three forward rolls in a row.

.

.

.

.

.

Even David reckoned he could do a forward roll after the expert training of our four year old, and he managed one! Hands back further next time though David.

Volcanoes, Volcanoes, Volcanoes

(Volcanoes happened over several days, and apart from the fire one happened lots of times.)
We started with a balloon blown up with air.

We covered it then stuck it with a piece of wire.

Pop it exploded leaving a crater.

We had our old favourite with the balloon on the end of the hose (no red dye in the balloon this time though.)
Sure enough the lava chamber expanded and whoosh lava flowed everywhere.

We even ended up with a small crater lake after the hose finished fountaining lava about.

Then since the wind was calm, it wasn't to wet, or to dry, David finally decided to try a volcano he'd first seen demonstarted at a Kindergarten 15 years ago.

Chamber made, and an air vent tunnel added, David talked about fire and match safety to the children behind the barrier then lit the newspaper.

We got smoke. (Leading to a talk on staying low and getting out quick if there's smoke.)

And fire.

Lot's of children shared stories from home and the farm about how their older siblings were allowed to light the fire. More talk on fire and match safety.

Then we explored how the smoke traveled and made connections to our hot air ballooning learning about heat going up.
Finally Adrianne who'd been standing by with the hose put it out.

Of all the experiments I like the water in the balloon best, as it is more exciting than the air balloon volcano as you never know when it will blow, and more interactive than the fire one which had everyone back behind a barrier. I would like to roast tin foil potatoes in a fire with the children one day though, if we can find a suitable fire pit that will be safe.

Te Reo

ahi = fire

ahi tipua/ puia = volcano

paoa = smoke

David

Daffodil Trip

The trip to the daffodil farm went really well, with all the children and families having a great time.
We started with a picnic amongst the flowers then went to pick the beautiful Taniwha flowers.
Thanks to Jo for organising it.

Art Auction part 6